


I Remember When...

by AshwinMeird



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Roommates/Housemates, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Established Castiel/Dean Winchester, Everyone ships Destiel, Flashbacks, Getting Together, Humor, M/M, POV Alternating, POV Gabriel, POV Sam Winchester, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, University Student Castiel, University Student Dean, Wedding, Wedding Speeches, indirect storytelling, outsider pov
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-29
Updated: 2021-01-29
Packaged: 2021-03-15 02:54:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 4,671
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29057046
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AshwinMeird/pseuds/AshwinMeird
Summary: Dean and Cas started enemies in a three bedroom apartment, then friends, and lastly lovers and partners.  This is their story as told by their closet friends and family, of their journey from enemies to lovers at their wedding.
Relationships: Castiel/Dean Winchester
Kudos: 53





	1. You First Met

**Author's Note:**

> I've been picking at this fic for like two weeks, which I think is the longest I've spent on one individual update. This is also the last time I can blame anything on exams, for now at least.
> 
> Title/chapter titles are relevant to each chapter btw.
> 
> Italics are for flashbacks.

“As many of y’all know,” Benny started, adjusting the microphone to his height, “I’ve been stuck with these two lovebirds the longest, and was even there when they first met. Met Dean first though.”

_Someone was at the dorm before Benny, arriving very early in the morning. When he entered Benny was greeted with an older rock song that he either didn’t know or couldn’t remember the name of._

_The only signs of a student having just moved in was the top of the upper shelf of a two shelf wall pieced neatly filled with vertically placed albums. There were no boxes or random knick-knacks in the main area of the apartment whatsoever._

_Benny was debating pulling one off of the shelf to see what kind of taste in music this guy had when the music was cut._

_“You Lafitte or Novak?” Greeted a voice, which turned out to belong to a guy Benny’s age with worn jeans and a rolled up flannel._

_”Benny Lafitte,” He stuck out a hand in greeting, just to use his well learned manners, “That makes you Dean?”_

_”The one and only,” Dean said cockily. “You don’t mind?” He indicated the shelf, “I figured that I wasn’t going to use the bookshelf out here so it felt fair to steal that one, you and the other guy can just split everything else.”_

_”No problem here, Chief. He can have all of it,” Benny agreed._

“We got along well, so I figured that I was in for a pretty easy year if this unknown roommate was anything like Dean,” There was a light murmuring of laughter, “Y’all know how wrong I was ‘bout that.

“Dean and I went out for lunch that first day, in that time I learned three very important facts about him; you don’t mess with his brother, his car, or his records. Words ter live by for all of us. No one let Cas in on the message though, ‘cause he’d arrived while we were out. And he took the records right off of the shelf.”

_”Dude, I think the new guys here,” Dean said, swinging the door of the apartment open. Benny was about to ask how Dean knew that when he walked in and saw the stack of boxes right outside of the door of the previously vacated third bedroom._

_”This should be good,” Benny muttered as they both stepped inside._

_They each took surveillance of the room, cataloguing the stack of boxes partially blocking the doorway and bags tossed across the coffee table._

_“Should I presume that the two of you are my fellow room occupants for this school year?”_

_Benny turned to see a dark haired dude squinting at him. “Yeah I’m Benny,” He replied, giving the guy a considering look._

_”What the hell, man!” Dean yelled, rushing over to the couch, “Who said you could to touch my shit?”_

Benny watched in shocked horror as Dean lifted an album case delicately off of the couch. The new guy, Castiel or whatever the sheet his RA gave him said, just looked at him passively and said, “That shelf is communal, I left your items on you allocated third of the shelf. This would not surprise you if you had read the dorm’s standard roommate agreement.”

“Rooming with the two of them was not easy. Even after we figured out how to have them live with one another without a murder being committed. The two of them never really made it past the original dislike of each other, not for a long while anyways.”


	2. You Hated Each Other

Balthazar accepted the mic from Benny as he took over the cajuns place on stage. “While I had heard many horror stories from the Adventures in Living Together Club, I was actually fortunate to be living in France for the first semester of the show so I mostly knew of it through recounts of events.

“That had not sufficiently prepared me for what I would be returning home to.” Balthazar readjusted his stance before sighing and continuing, “My sweet lovable little brother, who I had left only six months prior, had turned into a hardened shell of himself,” Balthazar said, looking heaven-wards and holding a hand over his heart.

_Balthazar watched Cas move around the apartment’s small kitchen. “What in good heavens are you doing?” He asked eventually._

_”I am just getting the honey that I usually stir into my tea,” Came a less than kind reply as Cas returned to the island with a peanut butter jar; with a jar of honey inside of it. “This is the only way to prevent Dean from putting sweetener in it again.” Was the only explanation offered._

_That was hardly the first complaint he had heard about Cas’ roommate, there were snide comments from his brother every time he was even remotely reminded of Dean or something Dean would do._

“I grew up with Cassie and Gabe, neither of my brothers were slouches when it came to pranking, but I once thought that Gabe was the better ally in a prank war. A naive thought, if I do say so myself,” He paused for the quiet bursts of laughter in the room, “It seemed like, to me at least, that every more Cas would make was to get an inch ahead of Dean in whatever race they were participating in.”

_Balthazar hadn’t had time to retrieve his own car, so he was stuck with Cas as a chauffeur. He wasn’t bad overall but there seemed to be some mild distaste from him towards the parking lot at their apartment which continuously baffled Balthazar._

_That was, until one day they arrived back and a smirk appeared on his brothers face as they turned into it. Castiel said nothing, however, as they pulled into a spot that differed from Cas’ usual one._

_Balthazar didn’t ask though, his silence and questioning look were enough. “It’s Dean’s preferred parking location,” Cas said, almost cheerily._

_It only occurred to Balthazar afterwards that a personalized prank was preferable to just dumping something on someone's head and whatever else existed on Gabe’s MO._

_Dean arrived back to the apartment before Balthazar left, he was in a bit of a huff, before he chucked a set of keys on the table between him and Cas. “Next time you want to steal Baby’s spot, don’t leave the keys in your damn car or it'll be worse for you,” He threatened before disappearing into his room. ___

_”That worked as well as expected,” Cas said, “We shouldn’t see much of him for the rest of the evening.”_

“Now don’t get me wrong, whatever my brother did, Dean made sure to hit back just as hard. But that’s the thing that used to confuse me so much about this whole dynamic of theirs: the pranks were always harmless. 

“As a kid in the Novak house I was used to chairs falling apart as I sat on them and Legos in my shoes just because Gabe wanted to laugh at someone's expense, but nothing ever happened between them that was even close to the nicer pranks we, Cas included, did as children." 

_”Why is there a half eaten pie on the counter,” Balthazar asked when he stopped by one evening._

_Castiel just stood there, unflinching, as he said, “Dean ate those pieces already,” Like it explained something._

_”Did you do something to it?” Balthazar asked suspiciously._

_”I would rather not lose function in any of my limbs,” Cas snarked, “And it was Benny that made the pie anyways.”_

_”So you’re just letting him have it, completely untouched?”_

_Instead of answering Cas got out a large knife and cut about a quarter of the remaining slice off and put it on a paper plate. “This will annoy him more, trust me,” He said, before placing it at the back of the fridge._

_”Why are you doing this, this time?” Balthazar asked, exasperated._

_”He rearranged my books on the communal shelf to alphabetical order by author first name, rather than last.”_

“Looking back, it was actually adorable, the two of them just trying to get each other’s attention like a couple of kids on the playground. I thought that they were going to actually go over the edge at some point, they could have easily killed each other if they wanted, but they never would have. 

“They still hated each other, it was a weird kind of hate, but it was still hate if you had to call it something.” 


	3. You Became Friends

“Dean used to land at Mom’s bar during the week for one of two reasons,” Jo said once it was her turn, “One, he did something extra ‘good’ to Cas and wanted to brag, or two, Cas got him bad. We used to make bets on which it would be every time he walked in.”

Jo shifted on her feet before continuing with a laugh, “None of us won that night though.”

_Dean came into the bar earlier than usual. He was harder to read; Mom was still saying it was a beer night, but Jo had her money on Dean getting whiskey. It was always the same; beer meant Castiel got him bad, and whiskey meant they were celebrating._

_Some of Jo’s favorite whiskey nights had been Dean screwing with the radio in Cas’ car so it would only play rock or kids stations, the time he made Cas a three part scavenger hunt for whatever book he had been reading at the time, and the time Dean would keep switching out one ingredient for Cas’ PB &J sandwiches (whole wheat instead of white, crunchy for smooth) so Cas could always_ almost _get a perfect sandwich._

_She also had favorites of Cas’ pranks on Dean, not that she would ever tell him that. One being the time he replaced any non important contacts’ name with Sammy 1, Sammy 2, and so on, and replaced Sam’s name with Wesson Stanford. There was also the time he had six of Meg’s friends (and ex’s) tell Dean that he stood them up one afternoon and another time when he plastic wrapped most of Dean’s albums so airtight that Dean spent almost two hours painstakingly trying to get it off all of them._

_The pranks had been slowing down recently, this was the first time Jo had seen Dean in the past two weeks._

_”Jo,” Dean called, leaning on top of the bar like he owned the place, “Can you grab me a scotch please.” He drew out the ‘please’ because she always made fun of him for doing it, but she didn’t that night._

_Jo was frozen for a second, until Ash chucked a piece of paper at the back of her head and she robotically got Dean his, unusual, drink. When she stepped in front of him, he had a soft smile on his face that Jo had never seen before. She just set down the drink and went to help another customer, unsure how to address this with Dean._

_After most of the patrons had left the bar, she went back over to him. “Scotch, why?”_

_”Benny promised me pie after my midterm, but couldn’t, so Cas made me one,” He said, taking a drink from his beer with a shrug._

“I had a lot of questions about this pie that Cas baked him, keep in mind that as far as anyone else knew they still detested each other at this point, and they did. But firstly, was Dean actually dumb enough to eat food prepared by his- in Dean’s words- enemy.

“Spoiler alert: he was.

“And secondly, I, of course, wanted to know why Cas even made it. We all know why now, but it was quite unexpected at the time.”

_Jo wasn’t sure if it did or didn’t surprise her that it was Cas, who had reached nickname worthiness after just one pie, that walked in a few minutes later. He came in and sat at the bar beside Dean like it wasn’t the first time that had ever happened._

_At one point Jo was watching them having a perfectly casual conversation when Mom came out from her office to see if Jo was holding wager money out on her. She was surprised as well. Dean and Cas spent a lot of time surprising people from then on out._

“Things changed between them, after that, they went from never being able to be around each other, to there no longer being a Cas without Dean, or a Dean without Cas.” Jo paused, before continuing, “Sometimes I forget that the time before wasn’t just a fever dream or something equally as surreal.”


	4. You Fell In Love

Charlie tripped walking up the stairs, a major downfall to having all tall friends meant she had to wear heels to this shin-dig, but Jo managed to silence her laughter as she passed Charlie the mic.

“I would like to preface this by saying that I am disappointed by how long it took me to figure this out,” Charlie grinned, “But I think we all felt that at some point along this little journey.

“I don’t know when it happened, no one can pin-point that accurately- but I remember when I first noticed it. We, Dean and I, were in their apartment and it just hit me.”

_Charlie was sitting on the couch in Dean’s apartment, waiting for him to grab them some beers. When he came back, though, he only had one._

_Charlie was about to protest, but stopped when he handed it to her._

_”You’re having one?” Charlie asked gently, not sure where that question would lead her._

_Dean shrugged noncommittally and turned back to the TV, grabbing at his controller. “Let’s just play the game Charles,” Was all he would say to her for the following hours._

_He was like that most of the afternoon, subdued and just acting off in general. Charlie knew that people were entitled to have off days, but Dean had been like this for three days. Exactly how long Cas had been visiting his parents out of state._

_They started a new round; it had been a few hours since the beer incident and they were making light conversation between games, when Dean offhandedly said, “Cas tried to learn how to play Minecraft the other day, he gave up after a few hours though, couldn’t figure out the controls. All because he wanted to interact with the new update adding bees to the game.” He paused for a moment before continuing, “Pretty sure it was Gabe that told him about it, I’ll have to deal with a shortstack later.”_

_It wasn’t the first time Cas was randomly brought up by Dean, it made Charlie wonder.... But they were best friends and lived together, it wasn’t inconceivable for them to be reminded of each other every once and a while… They were a special kind of close though, it was personal to them._

“It happened while Cas was away, Dean was just this shell of himself. We all say they complete each other, but I only noticed the incompleteness then.” Charlie looked out on the small crowd of people, smiling as they nodded in agreement. 

“It was obvious after that,” She continued, “Once I was looking; the touches, the smiling, the staring, it was to me- us- at least. They may have been the very last people to realize.”

_Cas was home a few days later. Charlie was over at their place again so she had watched their interactions intently, needing to know if Cas had the same underlying feelings towards Dean._

_Dean started smiling after reading a notification on his phone, it was what Charlie started to refer to as his ‘Cas smile’; the soft one he always hides beneath something else if he’s caught._

_When Cas actually arrived at the apartment there was a moment of hesitation, one where Dean and Cas both watched each other carefully, before simultaneously stepping in to hug one another._

_If the hug lasted longer than was strictly platonic, who was she to say._

_They pulled apart after that, physically, but they never truly left each other’s side and if they did they watched each other like they were waiting for them to just disappear from their lives forever._

_Dean handed Cas his unopened beer after that, then went to the kitchen to get himself one for the first time since Cas left days ago._

“I think Cas called what they share a ‘profound bond’ and that has been around for as I’ve known the two of them. Profound,” Charlie explained, “In the means that it has never existed like this before, their love is unique and deep rooted into who they are as people right now.”


	5. You Got Together

Gabe hopped on the stage, replacing Charlie, in his boring black suit. Cas wanted his wedding to have a look and Dean was willing to give him anything so this was Gabe’s torture device for the evening.

“Heyo, all. I know many of you were waiting for me to recount this, those of you that I haven’t shared it with, where have you been?

“What happened on this fine day, when the two butt-headed morons we all love finally decided to get their collective heads out of their asses? Well that’s a fun story and yours truly is here to share it,” Gabriel smirked.

_Gabriel was over at Cas' apartment one Friday in the early evening, it was one of the few times he was guaranteed to be alone with his brother because Cas was finished school at lunch and Dean had a late class._

_He was in the kitchen making the both of them, with leftovers for Dean and Benny if they wanted some, chicken casserole because he knew Cas would live off of peanut butter sandwiches if Gabe and Dean didn’t feed him._

_The front, and only so he’s not sure why the specification was necessary unless someone came from the balcony three floors up, door opened and heavy footsteps entered. Gabe had no way to actually quantify if it was Benny or Dean based on any of this alone, but he could feel the shift in the air._

_Dean was home from class._

_The tension has entered the chat._

“Basically Dean-o got home from class in a really bad mood and I was worried because the last time we saw him like this was when Sammy put glitter in his shampoo bottle and he couldn’t get it to go away for a week. It took Cas hiding his keys, and Benny and I helping clean before he agreed to not get Sam back until he had a level head again.

“But lucky for me they decided to hash whatever this was out in the common room, so I got trapped in the kitchen.”

_”Cas, what the hell?” Dean demanded as Gabe snuck a peak around the corner to see his brother stand (very closely) in front of Dean._

_Cas looked annoyed when he responded, “How could I possibly know what you are referring to, Dean?”_

_Dean scoffed. “How’sabout the fact that I had to find out that you asked Daphne Allen out from_ Meg Masters _of all people?”_

_Gabriel backed further back into the safety of the kitchen._

_”What on Earth does she have to do with anything? Daphne is a lovely person and I am interested in getting to know her further,” Cas growled, just loud enough for Gabe to hear._

_Gabe snuck a glance around the doorframe to see that the two of them were standing even closer than before Dean said, “She’s nice,” With a disgusted look. “Why would you want somebody who’s just ‘nice’?”_

_”Of course,” Cas snarked, “Why would I want someone nice? It couldn’t possibly be that I want to associate myself with kind and thoughtful individuals.”_

“I’m just going to put it out there that after they started arguing about Daphne, I was starting to actually get scared about what would happen next.

“We all had the bet on which one of them would make the first move,” Gabe continued, “I said someone else was going to break first and smash their heads together, yelling ‘now kith’ before that, but the majority vote (sorry Dean-o) was in favor of Cas. Dean pulled through in the end though.”

_”God Cas, you don’t understand,” Dean groaned, “Sure have some good people in your life, you deserve that, but you shouldn’t just be with someone ‘cause they’re all sunshine and rainbows.”_

_”So I should be with someone like Meg?”_

_”Hell no,” Dean snipped, “You should be with someone that pushes you to be you, who challenges you everyday, makes you the best person you can be ‘cause your already great but not a lot of people see that._

_”Whoever you’re with should be your partner, you’re equal, so you can go through life together. Not just someone nice who’ll…” The rest of it was spoken too quietly for Gabe to make out, even from just about six feet away._

_They had slowly moved closer during their… conversation, and the two of them were just staring into each other’s eyes, before Cas finally whispered something between them that Gabe couldn’t make out._

_He didn’t have to hear the question though, because the answer made it obvious._

_In a hoarse voice, with blatant hope in his eyes, Dean answered, “Me?”_

“Anyone who is not a child or over the age of forty, may come see me if they would like to hear the end of that story because I’m not getting in trouble for saying it up here.” Gabe laughed, “I will tell you though, that I was forced to call out ‘incoming brother’ before leaving the apartment with my hand covering my precious eyes from seeing the two of them.

“I will say though, before Sam throws me off stage- seriously chill out Moose I’m almost done-, I’m proud of the two of you for finally getting your heads out of your, um, butts and putting the rest of us out of our misery, because the two of you were very late to this party.”


	6. You Made It Forever

“Dean calls a lot of people family,” Sam started, ignoring the fact that the microphone was sticky for unknown reasons, “But I started calling Cas my brother long before the two of them actually got together.

“I wasn’t living with them or anything,” Benny interrupted him with a short bout of pained laughter, “But I visited most weekends, especially after I got my license and I could make a whole timeline of their relationship during that time.

“That is if Cas wouldn’t kill me on Dean’s behalf.”

_Dean and Cas had been together for about four years, though Sam often forgot that and remembered some of the time before as part of their relationship, because for all intents and purposes, it was._

_He had spent the morning, after arriving late the night before, in their apartment with the two of them just hanging out and enjoying a lazy morning. It wasn’t the apartment they had on campus, they moved out of that shoebox a couple of years ago now, but they made it a home for themselves in their own way._

_Cas went to go volunteer at an apiary nearby at lunchtime, which left him alone with Dean._

_Dean who was, still smiling softly at the now closed apartment door a minute later._

_”Are you good dude?” Sam asked, chucking a pen at Dean’s side, “You know he’s not gonna be back for a few hours right?”_

_”Well duh.”_

_”Then what’s with the face?”_

_”He loves me,” Dean says with amusement._

_”Is this a new development for you?”_

_”Nah,” He turned back toward Sam. “But this is,” Dean chucked something small and black to him._

_Sam eyes it warily, before, “Shit, dude. Really?”_

“I anticipated, or just saw coming, most of the events in Dean and Cas’ love story. Well everything that came after they became friends. But I almost forgot that marriage was the next step.

“What they had was already permanent, forever, but this was just the last step before they lived happily ever after and all the other sappy things I was given a list to not mention up here.”

_”Dude you okay?” Dean stared at him expectantly, “Did the ring scare you?”_

_”I just wasn’t expecting this,” Sam said, awed, “You sure you’re ready?”_

_”What’s to be ready for, we’re already in this for the long haul. It’s forever man, and marriage isn’t going to change that much,” Dean gave him a look, “You know you shouldn’t get married if some part of your relationship is going to change, right?”_

_”I just started dating Jess two months ago, tell me this is we’re still together in two years.”_

_Dean rolled his eyes. “It’ll be a couple years, yet, until we actually get married, but I kinda wanted to do this now.”_

_”You really thought this through, didn’t you?” Dean nodded. “Well color me impressed,” Sam muttered._

_”You should be used to this by now Sammy,” He said, taking back the box and opening it for Sam._

_”Well Mr. Sap, how’re you gonna do it?”_

“I’m not sure what I was expecting from Dean’s proposal, anyone who knows them was expecting it to be some big display of love, because that’s how Dean expresses his feelings.

“It was adorable though, his idea, it’s actually why we did this. Just so we can point out Dean’s romantic proposal in all of its glory.

“He made me help set it up after making Gabe keep Cas busy a few months later. The first thing he did was gather a bunch of supplies.

“First we got a pile of albums, according to Dean they were the exact ones Cas took off of the shelf that first day they moved in together.

“Then he had me meticulously clean out a peanut butter dish, because Cas used to hide his beloved honey in one and thought Dean didn’t know about it. Like Bal said: their pranks were never harmful, so Dean let Cas be paranoid about his honey for a year for no reason.

“The next one made sense to me because Jo sent me a series of, somehow, loud messages about Cas making Dean the pie that started their friendship. Dean made cherry though, not pecan like Cas did, ‘cause it’s Cas’ favorite.

“I judged him for this one until he gave me the back story by the way. He made me buy him a case of the cheap beer he and Cas used to drink before they got their finances in check, apparently they used to stay up late drinking and talking before they would admit it was more than friendship.

“And the last thing, which we had to employ Gabe to make, was his chicken casserole because that’s what he abandoned in Dean and Cas’ kitchen the night they finally got together.

“He made me leave right before he proposed, but I was one of the first people to be officially informed. He called me and I honestly thought the call when he said he and Cas were dating was the happiest I’d ever hear him.”

_”Sammy!” Dean called through the phone._

_”Hi,” Sam said, holding the phone away from his ear, “How are you?”_

_”Cas said yes!”_

_”Dude that’s great, is Cas there?”_

_”Hello Sam,” Came Cas’ voice._

_”Okay, that’s all we wanted to tell you!” Dean yelled, “Bye-”_

_Sam stared down at the phone in confusion, before laughing to himself._

“I’m happy that the two of you finally made it here, you deserve it. I love the both of you, and even if you made all of us go through some difficult years to get here.

“This is the happy ending, forever, profound bond, and all of those other things I wasn’t supposed to say up here, and I’m going to keep saying them because they are true. And the two of you belong together.”

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was Beta-ed by whoeversaidpineapplepizzabadyomomsahoe (it took me forever to type that dude) thank you for the help!
> 
> Feel free to leave a comment or a kudos if you liked this fic, and I'd love to hear what you thought of the way this was written.


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